Sara Thorgren

Passion and habitual entrepreneurship

This research note explores the differences between habitual entrepreneurs (serial and portfolio entrepreneurs) and novices in terms of their passion for entrepreneurial activities. Using the Dualistic Model of Passion as a conceptual framework, the hypotheses were tested using a random sample of entrepreneurs that registered a limited company in 2008. Results of logistic regression analyses showed that habitual entrepreneurs experience extra high passion for entrepreneurial activity. However, of the two passion dimensions proposed in the Dualistic Model of Passion – harmonious passion and obsessive passion – the obsessive component is particularly evident among habitual entrepreneurs. A closer analysis, comparing novice, serial and portfolio entrepreneurship, suggests that portfolio entrepreneurs score highest on the harmonious dimension of passion.

Unleashing synergies in strategic networks of SMEs: The influence of partner fit on corporate entrepreneurship:

An increasing number of firms participate in inter-firm networks to improve their innovation, renewal, and venturing; efforts that can be termed ‘corporate entrepreneurship’. This article contributes to the literature by developing and testing explanations for how partner fit (that is, complementary capabilities and organizational compatibilities) influences networking firms’ corporate entrepreneurship. Using survey data on SMEs engaged in strategic networks with multiple partners, we found support for an argument suggesting that partner fit requires mediating variables to unleash the potential synergies of partner fit for corporate entrepreneurship. Specifically, our results suggest partner fit triggers resource leverage through processes of both combining resources and accumulating resources from interaction with network partners. Thus, a positive indirect relationship between partner fit and corporate entrepreneurship is present.

Managing Maturing Government‐Supported Networks: The Shift from Monitoring to Embeddedness Controls

In formal inter‐firm networks backed with significant financial support by policy‐makers, network boards are typically established to monitor network activities and to manage the tension between organizational and collective interests. This approach to network governance, however, builds mainly upon agency logic. We integrate agency with embeddedness theory to offer insights into the effectiveness of monitoring as a governance mechanism as networks mature and member firms become embedded. The analyses focus on two issues: (1) how network board characteristics typically associated with monitoring – board independence, board size and board compensation – influence network performance; and (2) how these effects are moderated by network age. The model is tested with longitudinal data on 53 government‐supported networks. In addition to the direct effects of board characteristics, network board size and board compensation have a stronger positive impact on network performance in younger networks than in more mature networks. This study provides insight into why the instituting of boards may prove successful for network‐level performance in newly formed government‐supported networks, but also explains why the positive effects from network board monitoring may diminish as networks grow older.

Leadership, Passion and Performance: A Study of Job Creation Projects During the Recession

In the aftermath of the economic recession that began in 2008, governmental bodies have been assisting private sector companies to create jobs. To increase financial performance under greater economic uncertainty and liquidity constraints, this study proposes that a leaders type of passion could explain why some project leaders who receive government funding succeed in creating jobs whereas others do not. Harmonious passion, a voluntary but not overpowering urge to engage in an activity, leads to higher job creation, especially under greater environmental complexity. Obsessive passion, an uncontrollable urge to engage in an activity, also leads to higher job creation, particularly under increasing environmental dynamism. Using survey data from 105 European Union projects and archival data on job creation from the EU funding agency, we find support for the proposed framework. The findings provide a basis for acknowledging the relevance of a leaders passion for environmental adaptation.

Entrepreneurship education : the role of local business

Abstract Entrepreneurship education is high on political agendas for its contributions to cultural change and economic growth. Scholars have suggested that the local context may influence the results of entrepreneurship education, and have recommended that educators strengthen their relationships with local businesses and help students learn from actual business settings. By combining policy analysis with empirical data, the present qualitative study explores two issues. First, we look at how the role of local business is expressed in entrepreneurship education policy documents. Second, we explore how local entrepreneurial activity and culture may influence how policies are understood and translated into practice at the local level. The findings indicate that collaboration between schools and business life may strengthen, rather than change, existing local development paths. The present paper contributes to the literature and understanding of the interplay between entrepreneurship education policy and the local context and proposes several policy recommendations emerging from the empirical study.

Hybrid entrepreneurship: the importance of passion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motives behind individuals’ choice to haveparallel business-employment careers (hybrid entrepreneurship) with a particular focus on passion ...

A Cause-Effect Study of Inter-Firm Networking and Corporate Entrepreneurship: Initial Evidence of Self-Enforcing Spirals

Participating in inter-firm networks has become increasingly popular to enhance corporate entrepreneurship. Trust, relationship diversity and knowledge transfer are considered some of the prominent cornerstones of well-functioning networks. Using longitudinal survey data covering a population of 41 firms operating in two SME networks, we examine cause–effect relationships between interorganizational trust, relationship diversity and knowledge transfer, and corporate entrepreneurship among networking firms. We found a causal influence of knowledge transfer and relational diversity on corporate entrepreneurship. Our approach also identified self-enforcing spirals between network constructs and corporate entrepreneurship. Firms displaying high corporate entrepreneurship may stimulate the creation of relationships such as those characterized by high knowledge transfer that, in turn, are relationship characteristics that stimulate corporate entrepreneurship.

Reduced opportunities for regional renewal: The role of rigid threat responses among a region's established firms

This article illustrates how opportunities for regional renewal in a peripheral region may be reduced by rigid threat responses undertaken by established firms operating within traditional regional industry. In an inductive case study of new biorefinery industry initiatives in a region where traditional pulp-and-paper and forestry industry was in decline, we used primary and secondary data to outline how a set of new industry players who created innovative ways of using existing regional infrastructures and resources sparked rigid threat responses among established firms from the struggling traditional industry. Established industry firms framed new industry initiatives as threats, and responded by (1) reducing new industry actors’ possibilities for new business development, (2) engaging in entrenched resistance, (3) creating collaborative illusions and (4) undermining the fundamentals of the new industry. Consequently, this study contributes to existing literature by proposing the potential of applying the threat-rigidity thesis on a regional level. This is achieved by illustrating that conflicting behaviours between new and established regional industry actors constrain opportunities for regional renewal in a peripheral region. As such, relevant directions for future research and policy implications are outlined.

Passionate Leaders in Social Entrepreneurship Exploring an African Context

Nonstate actors such as social enterprises are increasingly influential for addressing pressing social needs in sub-Saharan Africa. Moving responsibility from the state to private entrepreneurs calls for a greater understanding of how single individuals achieve their social mission in a context characterized by acute poverty and where informal institutions, such as trust and collective norms, are strong governance mechanisms. This study recognizes the role of leader passion as a key element for gaining people’s trust in the social enterprise leader and the social mission. Qualitative data were collected on 37 leaders of Nigerian social enterprises in arenas such as health, women’s rights, children’s rights, AIDS/HIV care and education, and sustainable development. Drawing on 100 semistructured interviews, the authors develop an inductive model illustrating how leader passion interrelates with the social enterprise organizing and outcomes.

Critical event recognition: An extended view of reflective learning

This inductive case study extends existing reflective learning theory by introducing the concept of critical event recognition. We define this as the cognitive process through which individuals conclude that they are facing a critical learning point that demands a change of thoughts and actions. Extant theory has described reflection and learning as processes of interaction among an individual’s various experiences and has emphasized that critical events are important for these processes. Yet, theory has largely ignored how learners develop task-specific cognitions from such critical events when they lack previous task-specific experiences to which they can relate the reflection. This study proposes an extended perspective on reflective learning by shedding light on event recognition and by illustrating how cognitive development may progress when the individual has little prior experience with which to integrate the reflection from critical events.